


Happy Birthday

by ReasonsLost



Category: Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Video Game)
Genre: Birthday, F/F, Friendship, Gen, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:46:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6339172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReasonsLost/pseuds/ReasonsLost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A flash fic. Lara's first birthday with a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday

She had never had anyone to spend her birthday with before. Not properly. It had stopped being important to her a long, long time ago. So it struck her as odd how important it was to her friend Sam.

She had known Samantha Nishimura for a single semester, having landed in the same dorm room as her, and the girl had completely insinuated herself into Lara’s life. She was a true wild card, the one person Lara had real trouble figuring out. If she walked in on Lara studying she was as likely to offer to make tea for her as she was to push Lara’s laptop closed and drag her off on some silly adventure. She tended Lara if she had worked herself into exhaustion or sickness, but would just the same drive her to exhaustion and sickness if she were healthy and well. The one thing she was certain about with Sam was that she had her heart in the right place, even if her head sometimes wasn’t.

That Sam had even remembered her birthday was coming up was a surprise, the question had come up one night over Christmas break, when Sam had been _absolutely plastered_ ; she’d been in a state of quasi-delirious gratitude for Lara taking care of her. But, remember she had, and she was determined to make good on it; Lara’s birthday landed on Valentine’s day. That meant single women drank free at all of the local clubs, and Sam had refused steadfastly to go to any of them because she knew Lara didn’t particularly care to. It was sweet, really, if unnecessary. To Lara’s mind it was just another day, and tagging along with Sam wasn’t so bad, but Sam had insisted. It was her day, and they ought to do something Lara enjoyed, instead. First, however, was cake.

And so, Lara sat on the edge of her bed, hands dangling between her knees as she leaned forward over the chair Sam had placed in the center of their room to act as a table.

“Thank you, really, but you don’t have to…”, she was saying as Sam flitted about the room like an excited bird. Lara caught sight of an unopened package of candles, and resisted citing the existence of a smoke alarm in their room.

“Shut! Up!”, she said, she made the phrase seem affectionate just by smiling, and perking a brow as she said it. “I know I don’t _have_ to, but I want to”, Lara swallowed the first reply that came to her, unwilling to dampen Sam’s infectious positivity.

“Fine, sing to me”, she said instead. Sam nearly tripped, and Lara couldn’t help smirking. It had taken her over a month of knowing Sam to figure out how to get the better of her; Sam was very much a filmmaker, and preferred to shine a light on everyone around her. The best light, really. Turning the camera back on her always seemed to give her pause, and it had become one of life’s small pleasures for Lara.

“Okay,” Sam blinked away her surprise quickly, and set the candles down on the chair. It was hard to keep her off balance for long. “I will!”, her confidence had even returned. “Once I have your cake...” On that note, she disappeared through their door, leaving Lara alone, staring down at the seat of a wooden chair. She knotted her fingers together nervously, and tilted her head from side to side. She had always been alone on her birthday, it was normal enough, but Sam was coming back.

A wrinkled sense of nervousness settled over her, disturbing her peace. She reshuffled herself mentally, trying to smooth it out, but she couldn’t. It was a coldly familiar ache, hanging uncomfortably in her chest, and she had to reassure herself that Sam truly was coming back.

The door flung open, crashing at irresponsible speed into the doorstop attached to the wall behind it.

“Haaappyyy birrrrthdaaaay!” Sam sang in her deepest, bluesiest voice. It actually left Lara fairly impressed. She stared wide eyed into her friend’s manic, grinning face as she continued. Sam was holding a plain white box, and gesturing dramatically out from her chest to the room around them, as though Lara were a whole audience by herself. “...To youuuuuuu!” The absurdity of it wrinkled Lara’s brow, and she fought the twitching at the corner of her lips. “Happy birthdaaay, deeaar Laarraa!”, she dropped to one knee, placing the box beside the package of candles. “Happy birthday, to you,” she finished quietly, shrinking her oversized grin into a modest, but sweet, smile. She popped open the box.

Inside sat a small cake, so doused in icing Lara couldn’t have guessed the flavour without executing a full scale archaeological dig. She blinked at the letters on the cake’s top, which read “Sorry about breaking your mug!”. Sam continued to smile at her nervously.

“...You broke my tea cup?” Lara finally said. Sam gave a meek nod, but otherwise held her pose, and Lara could only drop her face into her hands.

“I got you a new one, though”, Sam offered in reconciliation. “It’s really nice, it changes colour when it’s hot, totally awesome”. Lara lifted her head to give Sam a skeptical look.

“Was it hand painted in 1877?” she asked in the most even tone she could manage, given the news. Sam deflated, and Lara felt guilty for saying it. Sam rocked back onto her bottom, and rolled so that she could access the underside of her bed. After a moment of scrounging, Lara had theories about the sorts of things Sam kept under there, she sat up with another box in hand. It wasn’t wrapped, but Sam had taped a bow to the top. The box was thrust into Lara’s lap, she did her best to smile as she accepted it.

“Thank you, Sam”, she said, and opened her pocket knife to cut at the tape. Sam crossed her legs and watched her from the floor. Her expression was expectant, and Lara hoped she wouldn’t disappoint her friend with her reaction.

Instead of styrofoam packing, Sam had filled the box with what Lara hoped were crumpled candy wrappers. She sifted through them carefully, not wanting to immediately destroy Sam’s gift to her. Her fingers contacted a solid object. She ran her finger along the circular rim, it felt imperfect. Gently, she lifted the cup out of the packing, and found a tea cup very similar to her old one, which apparently broken and been glued painstakingly back together. It looked older than hers had been, much older, and the rim had been glazed with gold.

“Sam...?” Lara asked, unable to even further compile a question.

“When I broke your mug I felt terrible, so I looked around. There was a tea museum a few years ago that closed down, so…” Lara was gobsmacked.

“It’s lovely”, she settled on, eventually, unable to take her eyes off of the gift. Sam absolutely _beamed._

“Keep digging, there’s a saucer in there, too.” Lara set her new cup down beside the heap of icing that was her birthday slash apology cake, and carefully dug out the remainder of the packing. There was indeed a saucer in the bottom. She lifted it out, and found that taped to the bottom was a small white envelope. Her brow raised reflexively at that. It was a bit formal for Sam.

She shot Sam an inquisitive look, trying to read her her expression as she cut open the top of the envelope. Her friend was placid as lake water. Unable to glean anything from Sam, she returned her attention to the envelope, tugging out its contents with care, incase Sam had done something further, and needlessly extravagant for her. Inside was a plain, folded note. She pulled it out, unfolded it, and pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth as, with raised brows, she read:

“Also,

We’re going camping this weekend. In February. Pack warmly. I already rented the cabin, you can’t back out. Sorry, not sorry. Don’t worry, though, I’ll drag you clubbing on my birthday.”   
  
Happy birthday,

  
-Sam”  
  
Lara stared at the note, unable to formulate a response, but definitely happy. Sam, her best friend, for better or for worse, had definitely made her day.


End file.
